Home / Browse / Literature & History / The Expedition of Orsua; and the Crimes of Aguirre.
[SOUTHEY, Robert]
The Expedition of Orsua; and the Crimes of Aguirre.
Publisher: London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821
Stock code: 47715
Price: £200 Currency Conversion
First edition of Southey's account of the career of the infamous adventurer Lope de Aguirre and of his usurpation of the command of Pedro de Ursúa's expedition to find El Dorado. In his Modern Traveller, Josiah Conder credits Southey with doing "his best to give interest to the frightful and disgusting story of this insane desperado's brief but atrocious career". Much interest added to this copy by the contemporary printed issue sheet for a subscription library run by W. Price, bookseller of Oswestry, on the front endpapers, recording the loan of the volume to some of the most prominent families of the area: Orsmby Gore, Despard, Sparling, and Puleston.
Small octavo (180 × 102 mm). Original sheep-backed boards, title inked to spine with later paper label. Rubbed, joints cracked to the cords but holding, paper stripped from part of the upper board, light browning, about very good.
